[FONT="]I had new Makrolon installed in April of 2015 on all sides of my enclosed flybridge. After 5-6 months the forward sections began to fail. Fail means that it became somewhat cloudy, and when it rained, a thin layer (almost like a film) on the outside would become loose, so much that you could slide the layer with your finger. Also, small pockets of water would get trapped under the loose layer. After it dried, the layer would tighten up and the looseness would be gone. However, tiny spider web type crackings would then appear where the looseness occurred. Sides and rear sections still looked new.
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[FONT="]So, I showed this to my canvas person and he was fairly certain that someone washing the boat put something on the Makrolon to cause this, as he had never seen this before. I assured him that anyone washing the boat had instructions to never touch the Makrolon as I always cleaned it with the approved stuff (I don’t remember the name of it right now) he gave me. And besides, if someone cleaned it with non approved cleaner, why was the forward section the only one to fail? Wouldn’t all of them fail?
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[FONT="]At any rate, he agreed that it didn’t make sense, and he replaced the forward sections at no charge. Great guy as that stuff is not cheap! He also supposedly sent a piece to the manufacturer for testing, but of course, they couldn’t find anything wrong.
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[FONT="]Forward to April 2016 – the replaced forward section and rear sections still look almost new, but now the side sections have failed in the same way! By mid November, still the same – only sides had failed. By the way, this is in the PNW, so we had been through a fair amount of rain in those 7 months with nothing changing during that period of time.
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[FONT="]The only thing I can think of is that the Makrolon (at least this batch) fails based on the amount of time that water is actually on it – the forward sections are angled, the sides and rear are vertical and therefore after raining, the vertical sides naturally dry much faster than the angled sections which hold water longer. OK, but why didn’t the rear vertical section fail at the same time that the side vertical section failed? The rear section has an overhang so doesn’t get as wet typically. I have a feeling the rear section will fail pretty soon though.
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[FONT="]Any other ideas out there? Anybody else seen or heard of this before?
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[FONT="]And, even though the forward section still appears to be OK, I’m reluctant to replace the sides, (and eventually the rear, I’m sure) with Makrolon again. So, does anybody like something better than Makrolon?[/FONT]
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